Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well, i gave my boys a large fuzzy and a small hopper each today (i prekill the food). usually, they just gulp them down and don't do anything gory, but today... well, sundance ate both just fine, but butch... he gulped down the hopper just fine, but when he got to the smaller fuzzy, he decided that it needed to be eviscerated. and my, was it eviscerated. after he disemboweled it while eating, he made sure to go around and pick up the smaller pieces that fell, or oozed out. thank goodness i put down paper on the floor before i fed them! it was, hands down, the messiest bloodbath of a feeding my gitlfriend or myself have ever witnessed... these are our first tegus, but we've both had monitors, and i never saw them cause anywhere near this much carnage. oddly enough, the closest thing i've ever seen to this sort of macabre spectacle was feeding my little brother's leopard gecko a pinky... it chomped onto the pinky and thrashed it to pieces! but anywho... back to the tegu. once before i noticed them deeply lacerating the pinkies with their bites, but innards didn't come out that time, although you could see them. this time, the guts spilled out all over. i'm sure i'm grossing some people out by now, but it's all just part of nature and part of having these critters as pets. years ago, i used to be squeamish about this sort of thing, but i tried a few methods to get a ball python to end its fast (ahem... eau de rat cerebrum, anyone?), and i quickly got over that, besides... can't let that stuff get to you if you're trying to get into med school.

Just wait until that tegu gets about 4 ft. long and decides to do that to your hand. I had been feeding an adult female a couple weeks ago. I was sure that she was FULL after a large jumbo rat and a plate of mashed potatoes. So I stuck my hand down into her stall to spray her hide box and "whack!" Man that smites just a bit. Hardest bite since a 12 ft. reticulated python did me the same favor about 8 years ago. I feed adult prekilled chickens to my adults and 3 of them can do away with a large hen in about 30 minutes, leaving only the largest bones behind.

i'm trying to avoid that by never feeding them in their enclosure... it may work, it may not (at least let a man dream!)... but as of yet, they've never even tried to bite me. the only cold blooded critters to ever tag me have been... a very hungry and very confused california king snake (it took a while to persuade him to let go... good old vinegar)... tons of anoles (everything ranging from li'l brownies to great big knights!)... my little sweetheart, a nasty nile monitor... and a leopard gecko (don't laugh... that s.o.b. drew blood! okay laugh... i know i did for weeks... he got me good though... i bled quite a bit). i've seen those tegu chompers and what they can do... but should worse come to worst... they'd leave a nice scar that i could tell all sorts of stories about!!!
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if nothing else, i at least amuse myself!

My hubby had a near miss a few weeks back with Amigo, he had given him a fuzzy mouse, and he ate it and still looked hungry, so hubby thought "ok, I'll give him another one" so he set it down, and Amigo showed no interest, so he went to grab the mouse to pull it out of there, and Amigo ran over with his mouth wide open, huffing and puffing as he ran. Luckily hubby's hand was clear of the mouse by the time Amigo got there!!!! (he did eat the second one too)

2 lessons learned

1) never feed them with your hands! (at least not live food anyway.)

2) If the food is in there already, wait until he's sleeping or basking to get it back out, if he doesnt want it!!!

>>My hubby had a near miss a few weeks back with Amigo, he had given him a fuzzy mouse, and he ate it and still looked hungry, so hubby thought "ok, I'll give him another one" so he set it down, and Amigo showed no interest, so he went to grab the mouse to pull it out of there, and Amigo ran over with his mouth wide open, huffing and puffing as he ran. Luckily hubby's hand was clear of the mouse by the time Amigo got there!!!! (he did eat the second one too)
>>
>>2 lessons learned
>>
>>1) never feed them with your hands! (at least not live food anyway.)
>>
>>2) If the food is in there already, wait until he's sleeping or basking to get it back out, if he doesnt want it!!!

My 5 month old Pit puppy got a good one on her nose from Squishy. They were outside and Maggie the puppy was getting in Squishy's face just a little too much and Squishy jumped up at her mouth agape. Got poor Mags on the nose with 1 tooth and laid her open. Now she's got her battle scar to prove she tangled with the big, bad Tegu! I hope I never take a full-on hit!

Billy

When I was 17 I got nailed by a six foot Spectacled Caimen, I still have a scar on my finger to remind of that, and it was due to a feeding accident. I was feeding a freshly killed chicken to this animal with a set of tongs and the chicken slipped off, the caimen who locked onto the tongs lunged and snapped and unfortunately my index finger got in the way.
I have been bitten by a large Savannah Monitor, the most painful experience, as well as a Tokay Gecko (powerful bites for their size bled like crazy). Oh and of course my Columbian B&W Tegu.
It sometimes sends chills up my spine when my Columbian grabs hold of an adult mouse and you hear the crunching of bones, or you witness his other "Let me get to the gooey center trick" where he splits the mouse's abdomen open with a casual slashing of his front claws.
For mess however, nothing beats my Argus Monitor's let's paint the cage red with mouse bits stunt.

Oh, the joys of owning herps.

-Kit

'nothing beats my Argus Monitor's let's paint the cage red with mouse bits stunt.' Thats pretty funny lol, crazy Lizards, Nienna's bit be 5 times, all times she let go the instant I lifted my hand up, seems like a "Oops, didn't know that was YOUR hand...". I fed her a buncha fat crickets once, and walked off to rinse out her water dish, and I knew she had a few in her mouth (She isn't happy with just one in her mouth, she has to have 3), because I could hear her crushing their exoskeletons from all the way down the hall in the bathroom. (I know this isn't anywhere near anyone elses stories, but its a show of things to come for me!)

Give it time, I am sure at some point a Reptile you own will bestow upon you a nice scar so that you can entertain and amuse your friends with. Think of it, if it is a nasty enough wound it may last long enough so that you can tell the story of "The One That Got You" to your grandchildren.

Take Care.

Kit

heck, even if they do get me, i've got plenty more impressive scars than anything i own now, or probably ever will own, could give me. anything that could give me a scar that big would probably just eat me, too.
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if nothing else, i at least amuse myself!

You make it sound like I would be put off by owning and taking care of an animal that could potentionaly rip me open Kit, can't be any more worse than a Croc Monitor bite, and they got teeth like a Carcharodontosaurus...

carcharodontosaurus baby teeth, maybe. but still, those croc monitor teeth are pretty big. but that's not what would put me off about croc monitors, it's that they get so big and need so much room. it's just not feasible for a lot of people.
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if nothing else, i at least amuse myself!

Yeah, I seriously considered getting a Croc Monitor, but I couldn't find enough consistant info on caring for it, probably what inspired me to get a Croc Monitor is because it has teeth like a Carcharodontosaur, but the Komodo has teeth EXACTLY like a Rex (Jack Horner never considered that, and Komodos kill their prey aswell as scavenge it). They had a juvenile Croc Monitor on LLL a few months back, but I'm glad I got Nienna.

y'know... i'd like to think that dr. horner noticed that the both had serrated teeth, but he had plenty of other evidence to support his theory viewing rexes as predominantly scavengers. but it's true that predators will scavenge, and wild animals in general will take anything they can get, dead or alive.
this makes me wonder, how big is the olfactory bulb in komodos? that of rex was comparable to that of a turkey vulture. my guess (just a guess) is that komodos would have smaller olfactory bulbs since they bite their prey and then just have to follow it until it croaks. but this is all just completely uninformed guesswork. it's nice to see another dinosaur lover.
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if nothing else, i at least amuse myself!

If you own lizards, you have to have SOME interest in Dinosaurs, I think thats the main spur that drove Iguanas to be so popular. I think the one of the best things about reptiles, is they split in the evolutionary line with the Dinosaurs, therefor being very distantly related to them. But anyway, this is the Tegu forum hehe.

i dunno. i can see more dinosaur in a parrot anyday than a tegu, those are my dragons.
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if nothing else, i at least amuse myself!

No, I was referring to how anchient Reptiles are, and how at some point Dinosaurs evolved from Reptiles, and split into their own path.